CHAPTER 1

What is Ground Improvement?

In this chapter, the subject of ground improvement is introduced along with a
discussion of the engineering parameters that can be addressed and a brief history of ancient practices. An overview of the objectives of designing a ground
improvement plan is provided with a description of how ground improvement
methods may be implemented into a project. The general categories and objectives of ground improvement techniques are also described.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
While one of the most important criterion for establishing the value of a parcel of land has often been expressed as location, location, location, the
practical and economic feasibility of developing and building upon the land
must be at least of equal (or greater) importance. When one considers developing a site either for construction, rehabilitation, preservation/protection,
or other use, there needs to be consideration given to the effects of loads
imposed and the behavior or response of the ground and soil to those loads.
In some cases, the loads may be man-made, while in others forces of nature
may be the driving mechanism. Either way, there are some fundamental
engineering parameters that generally fall under the expertise of geotechnical
engineers that can be evaluated and analyzed to predict what effects a variety
of possible loading conditions may have on the ground. These engineers
spend much of their careers devising solutions to prevent deleterious effects
(or worse, failures) from occurring. Most commonly, these effects can be
related to a limited number of soil behaviors or responses now reasonably
well understood by geotechnical engineers. These include: shear strength
of soils, responsible for sustaining loads (static and dynamic) without excessive deformation or failure; compressibility of soils, which manifests in settlement, slumping, and volume change of soil masses; permeability of soils,
which is the rate at which a fluid may flow through the void (open) spaces
in a soil mass; and shrink/swell potential in soils, which is a phenomenon
whereby a soil mass may substantially change volume typically associated
with intake or loss of moisture. Other properties, such as stiffness, durability,
erodibility, and creep, are also of relative importance depending on the specifics of the application.
Soil Improvement and Ground Modification
Methods

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Soil improvement and ground modification methods

1.2 ALTERNATIVES TO POOR SOIL CONDITIONS

A soil or site may be considered poor if it fails to have minimum required
engineering properties and/or has been evaluated to provide inadequate
performance for the design requirements. A soil may be considered marginal if it possesses near the minimal requirements. When poor or inadequate soil and/or site conditions prevail, one must consider the available
alternatives for the situation. These alternatives may include:
(1) Abandon the project. This might be considered a practical solution only
when another suitable site can be found and no compelling commitments require the project to remain at the location in question, or when
the cost estimates are considered to be impractical.
(2) Excavate and replace the existing poor soil. This method was common practice for many years, but has declined in use due to cost
restraints for materials and hauling, availability and cost of select materials, and environmental issues.
(3) Redesign the project or design (often including structural members) to
accommodate the soil and site conditions. A common example is the use
of driven piles and drilled shafts to bypass soft, weak, and compressible
soils by transferring substantial applied loads to a suitable bearing strata.
(4) Modify the soil (or rock) to improve its properties and/or behavior
through the use of available ground improvement technologies.
Ground improvement methods have been used to address and solve many
ground condition problems and improve desired engineering properties of
existing or available soils. In addition, they have often provided economical
and environmentally responsible alternatives to more traditional approaches.
There are a number of terms that have been used to describe making
changes to the ground and/or soil to improve them for engineering purposes. These include: soil improvement, ground improvement, ground
modification, soil stabilization, and so forth. Various authors have attempted
to define these terms to differentiate between them, but, generally, there is
such overlap between the applications that the terms are often used interchangeably. In general, ground/soil improvement is a process carried out
to achieve improved geotechnical properties (and engineering response)
of a soil (or earth material) at a site. The processes can be achieved by
methods that can be considered to fall into one of three categories:
(1) modification without the addition of any other material,
(2) modification including adding certain materials to the soil/ground, or
(3) modification by providing reinforcement or inclusions into the soil/
ground.

What is "ground improvement?"

The purpose of soil and ground Improvement is essentially to alter the natural
properties of soil (and/or rock) and/or control the behavior of a geotechnical
feature or earthwork in order to improve the behavior and performance of a
project. Among the properties that are usually targeted for improvement are:
Reducing compressibility to avoid settlement
Increasing strength to improve stability, bearing capacity, or durability
Reducing permeability to restrict groundwater flow
Increasing permeability to allow drainage
Mitigating the potential for (earthquake-induced) liquefaction
Each of these fundamental improvements may be achieved by a variety of
methods that will be described in this text. Improvements will be done during one of three phases of a project:
Preconstruction improvements are often the most desirable and cost-effective.
These types of improvements would be done to prepare a site for construction
and would generally be a part of the planning and design to ensure the
success of a project. Examples of preconstruction improvements are ground
densification, preconsolidation, drainage, dewatering and modification of
hydraulic flows, planned underpinning, and various grouting techniques.
Part-of-construction improvements are those improvement techniques that
are done during the construction of the project and could become permanent components of a project. Examples of part-of-construction improvements are compacted gravel columns, shallow soil treatment (including
gradation control, shallow compaction, and treatment with admixtures),
ground freezing, construction with geosynthetics, soil nails, tie-backs
and anchors for cuts, excavation, lightweight fills (including geofoam),
and so on. Earthwork construction may involve a number of different
methodologies and improvement processes for achieving one or more
improvement objectives. These would include engineered fills such as
constructed slopes and embankments, retaining wall backfill, and roadways. These would also be encompassed under the category of part-ofconstruction improvements.
Postconstruction improvements are done after completion of the construction phase of a project and are often remedial processes. These applications
can be very costly, but are used as last choice alternatives to rectify problems
encountered after (or long after) the completion of a project or to stabilize
natural features that have failed or become hazardous. Examples include
methods to stabilize settlement problems, failed or near-failure slopes, seepage problems, and so forth. Processes used for postconstruction improvements include grouting, soil nails, drainage, dewatering and modification
of hydraulic flows, and so on.

Soil improvement and ground modification methods

1.3 HISTORICAL SOIL AND GROUND IMPROVEMENT

The fundamental idea of improving the engineering properties of soils or
modifying earth materials to perform a desired function is not new. Some
of the basic principles of ground improvement, such as densification, dewatering, and use of admixtures, have existed for thousands of years. The use of
wood and straw inclusions mixed with mud for Adobe construction has
been reported for civil works in ancient times of Mesopotamia (the productive fertile triangle formed between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, now
Iraq) and ancient Egypt (BCE). Written works from Chinese civilizations
(3000-2000 BCE) described use of stone and timber inclusions (ASCE,
1978). Lime mixed with soil was used in construction with Romes famous
Appian Way, built around 600 AD during the height of the Roman Empire.
That roadway has endured the test of time and is still fully functional today.
An early application soil improvement by addition of infilling material was
reportedly used for seepage control in construction of gravelly/rockfill dams
in Egypt around 1900, where fine-grained soil was sluiced into the coarse
aggregate to lower permeability.
As many of the soil and ground improvement techniques fall in a relatively new area of geotechnical specialization with only a limited database
of case histories, some would argue that some methods are the interaction
of engineering science and experience-based technologies (Charles, 2002).
Burland et al. (1976) described the implementation of ground treatment in a
rational context with the basic stages:
(1) Define the required ground behavior for a particular use of the ground.
(2) Identify any deficiencies in the ground behavior.
(3) Design and implement appropriate ground treatment to remedy any
deficiencies.
While these steps may seem very simple and obvious, they are the essential basics to follow when addressing a site for new construction. But in
the current field, we must also consider treatment techniques that can be
used to remediate existing construction and/or to rehabilitate sites for
rebuilding or new types of construction not considered feasible
previously.

REFERENCES
ASCE, 1978. Soil improvement: history, capabilities and outlook. Report by the Committee
on Placement and Improvement of Soils, Geotechnical Engineering Division. ASCE,
182 pp.

What is "ground improvement?"

Burland, J.B., McKenna, J.M., Thomlinson, M.J., 1976. Preface: ground treatment by deep
compaction. Geotechnique 25 (1), 12.
Charles, J.A., 2002. Ground improvement: the interaction of engineering science and
experience-based technology. Geotechnique 52 (7), 527532.
http://www.astm.org/Standards (accessed 02.11.14.).